January 19, 2012
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton said, "Punctuality is the stern virtue of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes."
There is no doubt that we all appreciate punctuality for a scheduled appointment we had set up and the timeliness of fulfilled promises or schedules that involve various factors in our lives. We live in an age of very accurate clocks and we seem to be very busy. Gone is the sundial and approximations of arrivals. We want any airline to offer and keep a schedule and when trains or planes are delayed, we soon find that irksome and bothersome.
God sets "holy time" for mankind by the setting of the sun. Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is a time for every purpose under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Try as we might, we cannot always be precise as we live in a world that is full of unexpected happenings. Since we all live here and know this, we can make allowances for times when people or things are not punctual. How nice it is to know that others show courtesy and grace by trying to be punctual. It is easy to overlook the times they cannot be.
